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Meatpak by Pete Parisi
Reviewed by RawShark webmaster of RawShark's Quake2 maps
Filename: meatpak.pk3
3 of the highest quality FFA maps that you're ever going to see - using custom textures and a unique mapping style to bring you this awesome pak file full of meaty goodness!
Whitemeat - Large size FFA map suitable for 12 players
Redmeat - Medium size CTF map suitable for 10-12 players
Darkmeat - Medium size CTF map suitable for 10 players
I will review them individually, as follows. Note that this is a 15 meg download and may take a while, so start your download now while you read the reviews.
Whitemeat
A very large map, well populated with bounce pads and acceleration pads. The walls are all pretty steep, but climbable. This makes it extremely easy to span the distance of the map in a short time - surprising the hell out of your opponent who only moments ago was firing rockets at you across the width of the map. There's loads of weapons, and each weapon is positioned close to an area where it will come in very handy. The Rocket Launcher is up high, leaving you open to a nasty fall. The Railgun is not tough to get too, but awkward from certain parts of the map. The BFG is the one everyone will want, and positioning it in a closed space makes for a bloody mess in the rush to get it. Run like a looney tune!! There's plenty of heath and amour to boot. Floating platforms (a nightmare to get to - timing is everything) allow access to the armour, one of the 2 MHs, and the Quad Damage.
This is a damn fine map, but the bots are prone to jumping down the holes in the ground, leaving you with a clear victory. The custom textures are most obvious here - it really is a great looking, reminiscent of a Wipeout 2097 map or something like that. Nice with chips and a mug of tea.
Redmeat
A large map with complex brush work and lighting, yet it doesn't get too laggy. To be honest, this map totally reminds me of some of the base maps for Unreal Tournament, which were quite excellent. Use the shotgun for the lower levels where the red mist is, even thought the Lightning gun is more visually stunning down there. You can use teleporters from there to gain access to the top part of the map, where if you go even higher, you can reach the BFG. Alternatively, use the bounce pads and gain access to the middle levels, where you can pick up the Rocket Launcher. Getting back down isn't a problem, assorted ledges will break your fall and postpone cratter-dom.
The nicest thing about this map is that if you can stay alive, you can theoretically keep the BFG loaded with ammo if you run a certain path, which makes you a very dangerous mofo. The bots play this one fine and any half-skilled player will figure it out in no time. Custom textures stand out again - eye candy all over the shop. The pick of the bunch for me. Get your teeth into this map ASAP! Serve on it's own with a six-pack of beer and a big Cuban cigar afterwards.
Darkmeat
A very original spacey-bouncey map, but it 's just not as cool as the other maps. Not as many custom textures have been used and it's not as big as it probably should be. It does have nice features - fast launching acceleration pads (that look like conveyer belts - smart!) make the game fast and furious, but the bots can't handle that. One shot at a switch and you can open up the whole centre area, dropping multiple players into the abyss. The RL in the centre makes for plenty of easy targets, and the Shotgun is recommended for the sideways, RL is too messy. There's no BFG here, but it wasn't needed anyway. A nice map, but the other 2 in the pak just show it up. Sandwich material only, or perhaps dump it into a late-night curry.
Conclusion after the 3 maps? An excellent pk3 file to have on your hard-drive. Because of the size of the maps, they do tend to get laggy in places, and might be a bit of a nightmare online for some people. Considering this and how bad the bot files are, I must conclude that these are human only maps, suited best for LAN play, and overall definitely for experts. If you're a mapper, you should download this and aspire to be as good as this author. He's definitely one of the best. Go out and sacrifice a cow in his honour today!!!
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